A healthcare provider working within a patient healthcare application on a computing device typically desires access to additional content that helps the provider to better understand the information being presented by the application. For example, the provider may wish to access a differential diagnosis list associated with a set of patient symptoms. Traditional solutions to this problem require the provider to select, for example, the set of patient symptoms in the application. Selection of the symptoms may navigate the provider to another application where, for instance, a differential diagnosis list is presented. The provider must then close out of this application in order to return to the patient healthcare application. This navigation process disrupts the provider's train of thought and requires the provider to refocus on the information presented by the healthcare application before proceeding.
Another problem associated with typical patient healthcare applications is the presentation of alerts or action items. Alerts, such as alerts regarding medication refills, or drug-drug interactions are often presented as pop-ups in the healthcare application and require the provider to take some type of action in order to dismiss the pop-up. The use of pop-ups to alert the provider to potential problems or action items also disrupts the provider's train of thought and requires the provider to refocus his or her attention on the application once the pop-up is addressed and dismissed.